Tell Congress: Keep poison out of our water and ban atrazine now

Sign the petition

The petition reads:

Atrazine is known to cause cancer and birth defects, and it is contaminating 80 percent of U.S. drinking water. Keep poison out of our water and pass H.R. 2044, the long-overdue ban on atrazine in the U.S.

You might not have heard of atrazine, but chances are you drank some today: Atrazine is one of the most commonly used pesticides in the United States, and 80 percent of U.S. drinking water contains it.1 Extensive studies have consistently shown that exposure to atrazine can cause elevated rates of breast and prostate cancer, reproductive health problems, and various birth defects.2 That’s why the European Union banned atrazine in 2004.

Atrazine is the most commonly detected pesticide in our water systems, and the EPA has acknowledged atrazine’s toxicity. But both Congress and the EPA have still declined to regulate this toxic chemical. Instead of prioritizing our health and environment, they’ve been bowing to big businesses -- in this case, the foreign manufacturer of atrazine, Syngenta.

Tell Congress: Protect Americans’ health and ban atrazine now.

The EU had the sense to ban atrazine nearly a decade ago, and we can’t allow our government to continue dragging its feet. Cities throughout the midwest have already engaged in a long and costly lawsuit against Syngenta after they found unsafe levels of atrazine in their drinking water.3 Thankfully, the cities won a settlement -- but atrazine is still flowing into drinking supplies across the U.S. Meanwhile, the benefits of atrazine as a pesticide are negligible. The European Union hasn’t used atrazine in the last ten years, and has not reported any significant decrease in agricultural production as a result of the ban.4 We must stop pumping atrazine into our water systems, too.

Enough is enough. Congress and the Obama administration need to know that we will not tolerate continuing to put corporate interests over our health. Urge them to pass this long-overdue legislation to clean up our drinking water. Our health is more important than corporate profits.